Deaths: April 15
List activity
1.4K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
65 people
- Music Artist
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Undoubtedly, Pedro Infante was, and still is, the idol of Mexico. Because of his movies (59 including 55 leading roles and four cameos), records (366 songs recorded between 1943 and 1956) and public appearances in Mexico and Latin America, Infante became a star and the most beloved human being in Mexican history. His fame and the phenomenon of his stardom hasn't been matched by any movie star in the years following his death. The main reason for this can be found in the extraordinary quality of his acting, his beautiful singing and something called "charm" that can't be learned or acquired. He was a natural actor, perfectly matched with all his costars, no matter if they were male or female, children or grandmothers. Although practically all his films were great box-office hits and still are shown on a daily basis on TV, the most popular of them were the "trilogy of bittersweet poverty"--Nosotros los pobres (1948), Ustedes, los ricos (1948) and Pepe El Toro (1953) and the comedies Los tres García (1947), ¡Vuelven los García! (1947), Los tres huastecos (1948), A.T.M.: ¡¡A toda máquina!! (1951), ¿Qué te ha dado esa mujer? (1951) and Dos tipos de cuidado (1953). He was the good friend, the good son, the romantic in love, the caring father, the sexy singer, the "macho" with a heart. He was capable of moving the feelings of men and women who found in him someone closely related to their lives. His death in a plane crash in 1957 is still one of the most remembered events in recent Mexican history. His popularity has grown even greater since then, reaching generations of Mexicans born after their idol was gone.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician from Kentucky. He was the second presidential candidate of the then-new Republican Party, following John Charles Frémont (1813 - 1890). He served as President of the United States from 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War. He was assassinated in April 1865, the first of four American presidents to be assassinated during their term in office.
In February 1809, Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin, located on the Sinking Spring Farm . The Farm itself was located near the modern city of Hodgenville, Kentucky, which was incorporated in 1836. Lincoln was the second child born to the illiterate farmer Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851) and his first wife Nancy Hanks (1784-1818). Both of his parents were born in Virginia.
Lincoln was a namesake grandson of Captain Abraham Lincoln (1744 - 1786), a military veteran of the American Revolutionary War. The senior Abraham was born in Pennsylvania, and settled in the areas of modern Kentucky in 1781. He was shot by an unnamed Native American in May 1786, while working in his field. The Lincoln family were descendants of Samuel Lincoln (1622 - 1690), an English weaver who had settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637.
Lincoln's father Thomas bought or leased various farms in Kentucky, but lost most of his land in court disputes over property titles. In 1816, the Lincoln family settled in Indiana, which at the time had a more reliable and surveying system. Indiana was a "free-state", having abolished slave-holding in 1816. This suited Thomas' religious beliefs. He had joined the Separate Baptists, a religious group which forbade its members to own slaves.
In October 1818, Lincoln's mother Nancy died due to milk sickness. She had ingested milk cow containing the poison tremetol. She was 34-years-old at the time of her death. Lincoln was only 9-years-old at the time. The boy's primary caregiver for a while was his older sister Sarah Lincoln (1807 - 1828), who took over most household duties.
In December 1819, Lincoln's father married his second wife Sarah Bush (1788 - 1869). She was a widow, with three children of her own from a previous marriage. Lincoln grew close to his stepmother, and started calling her mother. By that time, Lincoln was old enough to start working in the farm. He reportedly never liked the physical labor, and his family regarded him as particularly lazy.
Lincoln received little formal schooling, relying on brief tutoring by itinerant teachers. He learned to read at the age of 7, but was not trained to write for several years. However, he became a bibliophile and spend most of his free time "reading, scribbling, writing, ciphering, writing Poetry, etc" He was largely self-educated, reading on a variety of topics.
As a teenager, Lincoln was "tall, strong, and athletic". He was trained in the "catch-as-catch-can" style of wrestling, a grappling style, and had a career as an amateur wrestler. He earned his reputation in the sport by defeating the leader of "the Clary's Grove Boys", a local gang of troublemakers.
In 1830, the Lincoln family moved to Macon County, Illinois. By that time, Lincoln was 21-years-old, legally entering adulthood. His relationship with his father Thomas became difficult, as young Lincoln craved for financial independence. In 1831, Thomas and most of his family settled in a new homestead, located in Coles County, Illinois. Lincoln decided not to follow them, and started living on his own. He settled for a few years in New Salem, Illinois.
In 1831, Lincoln and his partner Denton Offutt purchased a general store in New Salem. Lincoln gained a reputation of honesty, when he realized that he had accidentally overcharged a customer and voluntarily returned the money to him. By 1832, the general store had failed. The partnership was dissolved.
Also In 1832, Lincoln stood as a candidate for the Illinois General Assembly. He was an unlikely candidate, as he was rather poor and lacked political connections. He received 277 votes, nearly every vote in the village of New Salem. He lost the election as he was unknown outside this village.
In the early 1830s, Lincoln worked as New Salem's postmaster, and then as county surveyor. He aspired to become a lawyer, and read law on his own. He extensively studied legal texts in order to qualify. He later claimed that he was entirely self-taught. In 1834, Lincoln sought election to the Illinois General Assembly again. This time, he stood as a candidate for the powerful Whig Party and won the election. He served four terms in the General Assembly.
Lincoln's first known romantic relationship involved Ann Rutledge (1813 - 1835), a local woman who was reputedly engaged to another man. Rutledge died in August 1835, during a typhoid epidemic. She was only 22-years-old at the time of her death. Lincoln became severely depressed following her death. Biographers think that he wrote the poem "The Suicide's Soliloquy"(1838), to record his own suicidal thoughts during this period.
In 1836, Lincoln was admitted to the Illinois bar, and moved to Springfield Illinois to practice law. He started his career as a lawyer by practicing law under experienced lawyer John Todd Stuart (1807 - 1885), who happened to be a long-time friend of Lincoln. Lincoln gained a reputation as a formidable trial lawyer in cases involving cross-examinations.
In his political career in the 1830s, Lincoln championed the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. He later served as a Canal Commissioner. He voted to expand suffrage to all white males, not only white landowners. He adopted a "free soil" policy, vocally opposing both slavery and abolitionism. He favored the plan of the Whig party leader Henry Clay (1777 - 1852) to use freedmen in the colonization of Liberia.
In 1839, Lincoln became romantically interested in Mary Todd (1818 - 1882), a daughter of the wealthy businessman Robert Smith Todd (1791-1849). They were engaged in 1840, and were married in 1842. They had four sons. Mary had a higher social standing than Lincoln, being part of the gentry in Springfield, Illinois. She had reputedly rejected several suitors. Her most notable suitor before Lincoln was the successful lawyer Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813 -1861).
In 1842, Lincoln's last term in the Illinois General Assembly ended. In 1843, he sought the Whig nomination for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost the nomination to John Jay Hardin (1810 - 1847), but convinced party officials to not renominate Hardin in the next election. Lincoln won the Whig nomination in 1846, and went on to win the election. He served as a congressman from 1847 to 1849. During this time, Lincoln was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation.
During his term in congress, Lincoln proposed a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and to compensate slave owners for the loss of property. The bill failed to gain sufficient support, even from his own party. Lincoln spoke out against the country's involvement in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), warning that the price of glory would be "showers of blood".
Lincoln did not seek renomination to Congress in the 1848 election, honoring a 1846 pledge to serve a single term. He supported Zachary Taylor's campaign to win the Whig nomination for the presidency. When Taylor won the presidential election, Lincoln expected political favors from the new president. Taylor offered to Lincoln an appointment as secretary or governor of the Oregon Territory, which was at that time a stronghold of the Democratic Party. Lincoln declined the offer, as it would require him to abandon his legal career in Illinois. He resumed life as a lawyer.
During the 1850s, Lincoln was one of Illinois' leading lawyers. He appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 175 cases, and was the sole counsel in 51 of these cases. He solidified his reputation as a defense lawyer in two murder trials. In the trial of Duff Armstrong (1833-1899), Lincoln was able to prove that a key eyewitness was actually lying about what he had seen. Lincoln found that the witness stood at too great a distance in nighttime conditions to have seen anything. In the trial of Simeon Quinn "Peachy" Harrison (a cousin of Lincoln), Lincoln was able to convince a judge that the dying declaration of the murder victim should not be excluded as hearsay, That declaration was that the victim had actively provoked Harrison into attacking, helping the defense's case.
In 1854, Lincoln resumed his active participation in political life by speaking out against the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act, a law that repealing the Missouri Compromise (1820), and would allow for the expansion of slavery to the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The Whig Party split in two due to its factions' different reactions to the new law. The Party's anti-slavery faction helped establish the new Republican Party, which also attracted anti-slavery politicians from the Free Soil Party, the Liberty Party, and the Democratic Party.
In 1854, Lincoln stood as a Whig candidate to the United States Senate. He was not able to secure the election, but managed to convince his supporters to vote for Lyman Trumbull (1813 - 1896), an anti-slavery Democrat with similar views to their own. Trumbull won the election. In 1856, Lincoln formally joined the Republican Party. At the June 1856 Republican National Convention, Lincoln was one of the candidates for the party's nomination for Vice President of the United States. Lincoln received 110 votes, finishing second among the candidates. The vice-presidential nomination was instead won by William Lewis Dayton (1807 - 1864).
In 1858, Lincoln stood as a Republican candidate for the United States Senate. His opponent was Stephen Arnold Douglas, a leading Democrat politician. The Senate campaign featured seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas, which attracted nationwide attention. The candidates argued extensively over the legal and moral status of slavery in the United States. In this elections, the Republican Party won the popular vote, but the Democratic Party won more seats. The legislature re-appointed Douglas to the Senate. But Lincoln had become nationally famous, and he was often mentioned by the press as a likely presidential candidate.
In 1860, Lincoln received early endorsements as a presidential candidate. In the 1860 Republican National Convention, he secured the party's nomination. His most significant rival for the nomination was William Henry Seward (1801-1872), who finished second among the various candidates. Only Lincoln and Seward received over 50 votes from delegates. The party's nomination for vice president was secured by Hannibal Hamlin (1809 - 1891), a former Democrat who had opposed slavery for most of his career.
In the 1860 United States presidential election, the Democratic Party was split into two rival factions, which nominated different candidates. In the election, Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, or 39.8% of the popular vote. In the electoral college, he received 180 votes, winning the election. Lincoln every one of the free Northern states, plus California and Oregon in the recently annexed Western United States. He received no votes at all in 10 of the 15 slave states.
Lincoln started his presidency in March 1861. By that time, 7 states had already seceded from the Union in reaction to his victory (in chronological order: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas). The American Civil War started in April 1861 with the Battle of Fort Sumter, a bombardment of a Union fort located near Charleston, South Carolina. On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to send a total of 75,000 volunteer troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and "preserve the Union". In Baltimore rioting crowds started attacking Union forces. Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus in select areas, allowing the government forces to confine people without formal trials. Thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers were confined.
Lincoln soon established his executive control over the Union's war effort, and helped shape its military strategy, He expanded his war powers, and exercising "unprecedented authority" over the country. He had the full support of the Republican-controlled Congress, as well as popular support in states loyal to the Union. His political opposition consisted of two different factions, the Copperheads and the Radical Republicans. The Copperheads were a faction of the Democratic Party which demanded a compromise on the matter of slavery, and a peace settlement with the Confederates. The Radical Republicans were a faction of the Republican Party which demanded the "permanent eradication of slavery", and rejected any ideas concerning compromises with slave-owners.
In September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the emancipation of slaves in 10 Confederate states. The Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. By the spring of 1863, Lincoln had started recruiting "black troops" in massive numbers. By the end of the year, 20 regiments of African Americans from the Mississippi Valley had been recruited by the Union.
Lincoln ran for re-election in the 1864 United States presidential election. He united the main factions of the Republican Party and the War Democrats (a pro-Union faction of the Democratic Party) into a coalition known as Union Party. The remaining factions of the Democratic Party made the mistake of nominating retired general George Brinton McClellan (1826 - 1885) as their presidential candidate. McClellan held a grudge against Lincoln, but rejected any ideas concerning peace with the Confederates. Meaning that the Copperheads could see little difference between him and Lincoln.
Lincoln won the presidential election with 2,218,388 votes, representing 55.0% of the popular vote. 78% of Union soldiers. voted fort him, as they did not want a compromise to end the War. Lincoln won 212 electoral votes, and had the support of 22 out of the Union's 25 states. His new vice-president was Andrew Johnson (1808 - 1875), a prominent War Democrat.
In 1865, the Union seemed to be winning the American Civil War. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife attended Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. They wanted to see a performance of the then-popular British play "Our American Cousin" (1858) by Tom Taylor (1817 - 1880). During the performance, Lincoln was assassinated by the well-known actor John Wilkes Booth (1838 - 1865). Booth was a Confederate sympathizer, and hoped to turn the tide of the War. Lincoln was 56-years-old at the time of his death.
Lincoln's corpse was returned for burial to Springfield, Illinois, where he had lived for decades. On May 4, 1865, Lincoln was interred at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. The Lincoln Tomb later became a state historic site. His wife and three of their four sons were later buried there as well.
Historians tend to rank Lincoln among the top Presidents of the United States. Due to his violent death, he came to be regarded as "a national martyr". Several political factions trace their origins to Lincoln's ideas and policies. He has been described as "a classical liberal" of the 19th-century, and is well-regarded for his policies favoring trade and business.- Actor
- Writer
He attended Sundsta/Älvkullegymnasiet (high school) in Karlstad. He's the son of Rolf Alsing, former editor in chief at the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
He's famous for hosting shows like Adam (1993), "Masterplan," Big Brother (2000), and Tur i kärlek (1991) in Sweden. In 2006 he started as a host for Swedish "Jeopardy" taking over from popular Magnus Härenstam.
He loves to play golf and has a handicap of 18. He lives in Stockholm with his wife and two kids.- Alita Román was born on 24 August 1912 in Argentina. She was an actress, known for Trampa para un soñador (1980), Casa de muñecas (1943) and Cinco gallinas y el cielo (1957). She died on 15 April 1989 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Writer
Allen Daviau was born on 14 June 1942 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a cinematographer and writer, known for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Empire of the Sun (1987) and Bugsy (1991). He died on 15 April 2020 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Lowe, rotund and professionally indefatigable, rightly gained acclaim as an accomplished comedy character actor; fondly remembered as the irascible "Captain Mainwaring" in the Home Guard comedy series Dad's Army (1968-1977), and as Coronation Street (1960)'s "Leonard Swindley". The only child of a Derbyshire railworker, Lowe gained valuable experience by organising shows for a British army field entertainment unit, in the Middle East, during World War Two, before commencing his professional acting career, at the age of 30, in 1945, upon joining the "Manchester Repertory Theatre Company".
In between endless tours for repertory and in major stage performances, Lowe utilised his character actor status - which writers identify as being aided by his bald head - in bit-parts for films including: the inspired "Ealing" black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Green Man (1956). Later, whilst gathering fame - with the reputedly observational realist soap opera Coronation Street (1960) - he cemented a professional relationship with maverick film director Lindsay Anderson; using left-wing sensibilities for some of his films: including If.... (1968) and several characters in the avant-garde O Lucky Man! (1973) (the latter earning Lowe an SFTA Award, for best supporting performance).
As his son, and biographer, Stephen Lowe, intimated, finances governed and perpetuated his career, in the final stages of his life, in the 1970s; appearing in over 100, and possibly very lucrative, television advertisements and, not surprisingly, a surfeit of comedies including the sit-com Potter (1979) (1979-1983), the ribald film No Sex Please - We're British (1973) and to rave reviews for his stage performance as "Stephano", in "The Tempest" (1974), at the "National Theatre". Although Lowe received excellent notices for straight roles and appearances in plays such as John Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" (1963) at the "Royal Court", Dad's Army (1968) assured Lowe enduring appeal, as his character acting skills seamlessly compliment the show's comfortable sit-com structure.- Barbara Assoon was born on 15 September 1929 in Trinidad. She was an actress, known for ITV Play of the Week (1955), Outbreak of Murder (1962) and Coronation Street (1960). She was married to Anthony Kenneth Jack Wimbourne. She died on 14 April 2020 in Cocorite, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Imposing, barrel-chested and often silver-haired Brian Dennehy was a prolific US actor, well respected on both screen and stage over many decades. He was born in July 1938 in Bridgeport, CT, and attended Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship. Brian majored in history, before moving on to Yale to study dramatic arts. He first appeared in minor screen roles in such fare as Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Semi-Tough (1977) and Foul Play (1978) and proved popular with casting directors, leading to regular work. However, he really got himself noticed by movie audiences in the box-office hit First Blood (1982) as the bigoted sheriff determined to run Vietnam veteran "John Rambo" (played by Sylvester Stallone) out of his town. Dennehy quickly escalated to stronger supporting or co-starring roles in films including the Cold War thriller Gorky Park (1983), as a benevolent alien in Cocoon (1985), a corrupt sheriff in the western Silverado (1985), a tough but smart cop in F/X (1986) and a cop-turned-writer alongside hit man James Woods in Best Seller (1987). In 1987, Dennehy turned in one of his finest performances as cancer-ridden architect "Stourley Kracklite" in Peter Greenaway's superb The Belly of an Architect (1987), for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 1987 Chicago Film Festival. More strong performances followed. He reprised prior roles for Cocoon: The Return (1988) and F/X2 (1991), and turned in gripping performances in three made-for-TV films: a sadistic small-town bully who gets his grisly comeuppance in In Broad Daylight (1991), real-life serial killer John Wayne Gacy in the chilling To Catch a Killer (1992) and a corrupt union boss in Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992). In 1993, Dennehy appeared in the role of police "Sgt. Jack Reed" in the telemovie Jack Reed: Badge of Honor (1993), and reprised the role in four sequels, which saw him for the first time become involved in co-producing, directing and writing screen productions! Demand for his services showed no signs of abating, and he put in further memorable performances in Romeo + Juliet (1996), as bad-luck-ridden "Willy Loman" in Death of a Salesman (2000) (which earned him a Golden Globe Award), he popped up in the uneven Spike Lee film She Hate Me (2004) and appears in the remake Assault on Precinct 13 (2005). The multi-talented Dennehy also had a rich theatrical career and appeared both in the United States and internationally in dynamic stage productions including "Death of a Salesman" (for which he picked up the 1999 Best Actor Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award), "A Touch of the Poet", "Long Day's Journey into Night" (for which he picked up another Tony Award in 2003) and in Eugene O'Neill's heart-wrenching "The Iceman Cometh."- Bruce Myers was born on 12 April 1942 in Radcliffe, Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Relic Hunter (1999) and The French Revolution (1989). He was married to Corinne Jaber and Ivanka Polchenco. He died on 15 April 2020 in Paris, France.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Charles Vanel was a French actor. His film career lasted for 76 years, from 1912 to 1988. He appeared in over 200 films.
Vanel often worked under famous directors, such as Luis Buñuel, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jacques Feyder, and Alfred Hitchcock. A career highlight was his role as truck driver Jo in the thriller film "The Wages of Fear" (1953). In France, it was the 4th highest earning film of the year. The film won both the Golden Bear and the Palme d'Or.
Vanel won the Best Actor award of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival , for his role as Wolf Andergast in the drama film "L'affaire Maurizius" (1954).
Vanel had a supporting role in the thriller film "To Catch a Thief" (1955) as restaurant owner Monsieur Bertani, who is a veteran of the French Resistance. In retrospect, the film was considered one of Hitchcock's strongest films.
Vanel won the Best Actor award of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, for his role as Albatrasse in the thriller film "Burning Fuse" (1957).
In 1979, Vanel received a Honorary César Award for his career. In 1981, he won the Best Supporting Actor award in the David Di Donatello Awards, for his role as pater familias Donato Giuranna in the drama film "Three Brothers".
Vanel's last film role was in the film "Les Saisons du plaisir" (1988). He died in April 1989, at the age of 96.- Clara Blandick was an American actress born as Clara Dickey and born aboard an American ship off the coast of Hong Kong on June 4, 1880. Little is known about her early life until she became an actress. She grew up in Boston and first acted on stage in E.H. Sothern's 'Richard Lovelace'. Although she appeared in 118 films, she was primarily a stage actress. She began her film career at a late age. She was 33 when she was picked for the role as Emily Mason in Mrs. Black Is Back (1914). Her next film was The Stolen Triumph (1916), after which she returned to the stage, where she seemed more comfortable. She did not make another film until the age of 48, when she appeared in Poor Aubrey (1930).
She had only three films under her belt by this time but would appear in more than 100 over the next 20 years. She made nine films in 1930, and thirteen the following year. The role that was to immortalize her, however, was "Auntie Em" in The Wizard of Oz (1939). She continued in films until 1950, when she appeared on the screen for the final time in Key to the City (1950).
By this time Blandick had been suffering from poor health for years, especially painful arthritis and failing eyesight, and retired from the screen. On Palm Sunday, April 15, 1962, aged 85, she went to church in Hollywood. When she returned she wrote a note stating she was about to take the greatest adventure of her life. She took an overdose of sleeping tablets and pulled a plastic bag over her head, thus ending her life. - Blustery, stocky, loud although often genial character actor who has created a niche for himself playing often frustrated and fast talking Southern characters... most noticeably as Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond adventures Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
He may have perfected a Southern drawl, however Clifton James was actually born on May 29, 1921 in Spokane, Washington. A graduate of the Actors Studio, he regularly appeared in guest roles on television series, including Gunsmoke (1955), Bonanza (1959) and The Virginian (1962). He was also busy in the cinema with minor roles in classy productions, such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), Will Penny (1967) and The New Centurions (1972). After his 007 escapades, James remained busy putting in a great dramatic performance in The Deadly Tower (1975), played another loud-mouthed Sheriff in the action comedy Silver Streak (1976) and was superb as team owner Charles Comiskey in the dramatization of the 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal, Eight Men Out (1988).
His other roles include that of a wealthy Montana baron whose cattle are being rustled in Rancho Deluxe (1975), and as the source who tips off a newspaper reporter (Bruce Willis) to a potentially explosive story in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). He had been quieter in his later years, but showed he could still contribute an enjoyable performance in the wonderful John Sayles movie Sunshine State (2002). James died at age 96 from complications of diabetes at his home in Gladstone, Oregon on April 15, 2017. - Damaso Garcia was born on 7 February 1957 in Moca, Espaillat, Dominican Republic. He died on 15 April 2020 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Diego Galán was born on 13 October 1946 in Tangier, Morocco. He was a director and writer, known for Barefoot in the Kitchen (2013), Editor of Illusions (2005) and Apunte sobre Ana (1973). He died on 15 April 2019 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Don Bexley was born on 10 March 1910 in Jamestown, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for Sanford and Son (1972), What's Up, Doc? (1972) and T.J. Hooker (1982). He was married to Patricia Bergeron, Gillian and Ruth. He died on 15 April 1997 in Hampton, Virginia, USA.- Composer
- Soundtrack
Eddie Cooley was born on 15 April 1933 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was a composer, known for The Adjustment Bureau (2011), Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Bitter Moon (1992). He died on 15 April 2020 in Meridian, Mississippi, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Elizabeth Rees was born on 1 May 1936 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. She was an actress, known for Dawn (1991), BBC2 Playhouse (1973) and Graham's Gang (1977). She was married to Jonathan Aitken, Peter Aitken, Rex Harrison and Richard Harris. She died on 15 April 2022 in London.- Emilio Diaz was born on 3 July 1949 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was an actor, known for There's Something About Mary (1998). He was married to Billie Diaz. He died on 15 April 2008 in Seal Beach, California, USA.
- Frank Senger was born on 10 December 1954 in Springfield, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Léon: The Professional (1994), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and 13 (2010). He died on 15 April 2016 in New York, New York, USA.
- Gary McSpadden was born on 26 January 1943 in Mangum, Oklahoma, USA. He died on 15 April 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Greta Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Anna Lovisa (Johansdotter), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a laborer. She was fourteen when her father died, which left the family destitute. Greta was forced to leave school and go to work in a department store. The store used her as a model in its newspaper ads. She had no film aspirations until she appeared in short advertising film at that same department store while she was still a teenager. Erik A. Petschler, a comedy director, saw the film and gave her a small part in his Luffar-Petter (1922). Encouraged by her own performance, she applied for and won a scholarship to a Swedish drama school. While there she appeared in at least one film, En lyckoriddare (1921). Both were small parts, but it was a start. Finally famed Swedish director Mauritz Stiller pulled her from the drama school for the lead role in The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924). At 18 Greta was on a roll.
Following The Joyless Street (1925) both Greta and Stiller were offered contracts with MGM, and her first film for the studio was the American-made Torrent (1926), a silent film in which she didn't have to speak a word of English. After a few more films, including The Temptress (1926), Love (1927) and A Woman of Affairs (1928), Greta starred in Anna Christie (1930) (her first "talkie"), which not only gave her a powerful screen presence but also garnered her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress (she didn't win). Later that year she filmed Romance (1930), which was somewhat of a letdown, but she bounced back in 1931, landing another lead role in Mata Hari (1931), which turned out to be a major hit.
Greta continued to give intense performances in whatever was handed her. The next year she was cast in what turned out to be yet another hit, Grand Hotel (1932). However, it was in MGM's Anna Karenina (1935) that she gave what some consider the performance of her life. She was absolutely breathtaking in the role as a woman torn between two lovers and her son. Shortly afterwards, she starred in the historical drama Queen Christina (1933) playing the title character to great acclaim. She earned an Oscar nomination for her role in the romantic drama Camille (1936), again playing the title character. Her career suffered a setback the following year in Conquest (1937), which was a box office disaster. She later made a comeback when she starred in Ninotchka (1939), which showcased her comedic side. It wasn't until two years later she made what was to be her last film, Two-Faced Woman (1941), another comedy. But the film drew controversy and was condemned by the Catholic Church and other groups and was a box office failure, which left Garbo shaken.
After World War II Greta, by her own admission, felt that the world had changed perhaps forever and she retired, never again to face the camera. She would work for the rest of her life to perpetuate the Garbo mystique. Her films, she felt, had their proper place in history and would gain in value. She abandoned Hollywood and moved to New York City. She would jet-set with some of the world's best-known personalities such as Aristotle Onassis and others. She spent time gardening and raising flowers and vegetables. In 1954 Greta was given a special Oscar for past unforgettable performances. She even penned her biography in 1990.
On April 15, 1990, Greta died of natural causes in New York and with her went the "Garbo Mystique". She was 84.- Born in Birmingham, England, Hazel Court carried on a love affair with the world of movies and make-believe that made her a leading student at her hometown's School of Drama and later helped her land a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Graduating from bits to supporting roles to leads, Court worked in English films from the mid-'40s until the early 1960s, when she relocated to Hollywood. The flame-haired Court was married to Irish actor Dermot Walsh before she married American actor-director Don Taylor.
- Master bassist Henry Grimes, missing from the music world since the late '6Os, has made an unprecedented comeback after receiving the gift of a bass (a green one called Olive Oil!) from William Parker in December 20O2 to replace the instrument he had given up some 2O years earlier. Between the mid-'5Os and the mid-'6Os, the Philadelphia-born, Juilliard-educated Henry Grimes played brilliantly on some 5O albums with an enormous range of musicians, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus (yes, Charles Mingus), Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Perry Robinson, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Charles Tyler, McCoy Tyner, Rev. Frank Wright, and many more ... and then one day, for reasons largely related to troubles in the music world in those days, he disappeared. Many years passed with nothing heard from Henry, yet after a very short while with his new bass, he emerged to begin working with Bobby Bradford, Nels and Alex Cline, Joseph Jarman, and others at Billy Higgins's World Stage, the Howling Monk, the Jazz Bakery, and Schindler House in the Los Angeles area. On his triumphant return to New York City in May 20O3, he played as special guest on two nights of the six-night Vision Festival, gave live concerts and lengthy interviews on the air daily during a five-day WKCR Henry Grimes Radio Festival, and offered a bass clinic before 5O New York-area bassists who haven't stopped talking about him since. He followed this with three virtually sold-out nights at Iridium in New York City leading his own band. These days, Grimes lives, works, and teaches in New York City and has been working almost exclusively as a leader with Fred Anderson, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Jr., Daniel Carter, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, Jane Getz, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Sabir Mateen, Bennie Maupin, David Murray, William Parker, Marc Ribot, and many more. He has toured extensively in Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Holland, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the U.S. in 20O3 and 20O4, with more to follow. The recipient of a "Meet the Composer" award in 20O3, he was also designated "Musician of the Year" by "All About Jazz/ New York." Still in his sixties, Henry Grimes is healthy and strong, and his gentle, humble bearing and courageous life story have inspired all those privileged to know him, hear him, play music with him.
- Writer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jean-Paul Charles-Aymard Sartre was born on June 21, 1905, in Paris, France. His father, Jean-Baptiste Sartre, was an officer in the French Navy. His mother, Anne-Marie Schweitzer, was the cousin of Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Sartre was one year old when his father died. He was raised in Meudon, at the home of his tough grandfather Charles Schweitzer, a high school professor. His early education included music, mathematic, and classical literature. He studied at the Lycee Montaigne and at Lycee Henri IV in Paris. In 1917 his mother married an engineer at the naval yards in La Rochelle. There young Sartre suffered under his controlling stepfather, whom he called an "intruder". Such experiences shaped his character to rebel against any restrictions and domination.
The happiest part of his childhood was when Sartre met Paul Nizan, who was his classmate at the Lycee Henri IV in Paris. They became constant companions and best friends. Sartre continued his studies in Paris at Lycee Louis-Le-Grand, then at Ecole Normale Superieure and Sorbonne. There Sartre advanced in his studies of philosophy, absorbing mainly from the "Gifford Lectures" by Henri Bergson and "The Principles of Psychology" by Harvard philosopher William James, as well as from Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx and Martin Heidegger.
Sartre saw the artificiality of grown-ups in the bourgeois class as the outcome of their spiritually destructive conformity. His Sorbonne classmate and girlfriend Simone de Beauvoir was also an unrestricted thinker and later one of the founders of contemporary feminism. Both learned to hate the restrictions of upper-class life. Both favored an "authentic state of being". In 1932 Sartre proposed to Beauvoir, but she turned him down and went on teaching alone. In 1935 she introduced Sartre to her 18-year-old student Olga Kozakiewich and the three formed the "family". Sartre was used by Beauvoir, who merged both relationships into a trio, that led to an unexpected and overwhelming outcome. While they imagined the trio would illustrate the 'authenticity' of their relationships; in reality the inevitable competition from the younger and independent-minded Olga became a growing threat. Beauvoir saw Olga as an object, a mere cast member of the game. She also overestimated her own tolerance. Eventually the trio failed before the challenge to reciprocate in recognition of each one's "authentic" consciousness. Each member wrote a different account of the same events in their "family" life. In Sartre's trilogy "Les chemins de la liberte" (The Roads to Freedom 1945-1949) Olga is disguised as the character of Ivich.
Sartre and de Beauvoir continued experimenting with their "open family" by including several former students of both Beauvoir and Sartre, forming a unique social group with Olga Kazakiewich, Nathalie Sorokine and Jacques-Laurent Bost. The complex manner of relationships in the "family" was somewhat based on the intellectual connection between students and teachers, who also shared cooking and other domestic duties. Other family members' "authentic" consciousness added to social inventiveness and developed a sort of a survival group-therapy during the occupation of Paris in WWII. "Existence precedes transformation of consciousness" - commented Sartre.
In 1938 he wrote "La Nausee" (Nausea), which became the canonical work of existentialism. It was partially influenced by Franz Kafka and Edmund Husserl, reiterating the belief that human life has no purpose. The book is set in a French town where Antoine, a 30-year-old historian, is doing his research on an 18th-century politician. He is gradually overtaken by a sickness he calls nausea. This alters his senses, thoughts and emotional experiences of the past and present in an uncommon way. Antoine is anxiously searching for the lost meaning of things, people and events. The character of Antoine embodies Sartre's theories of existential angst, and his own search through the chaos of things and events; that are crowding the human life.
Sartre was initially torn between his pacifism and his anti-Nazi position. In 1939 he was drafted into the French army and assigned to the 70th Division in Nancy, then transferred to Morsbonn military camp. There he started writing his "L'etre et neant". He was captured by the Germans and imprisoned from 1940-1941. While in prison he reread Martin Heidegger and wrote the play "Bariona". In March of 1941 he escaped from the Nazi POW camp. He and Beauvoir traveled to the south of France where they wooed André Gide and André Malraux to their underground group, "Socialisme et Liberte". Their active resistance was soon tamed into mere writing for "Combat", published by Albert Camus. Sartre became a teacher in Lycee Condorcet from 1941-1944 and supported the "family" of five during the occupation of Paris. At that time his opus magnum "L'etre et neant" (Being and Nothingness, 1943) was completed and published. He also wrote a play, "No Exit", as an attempt "to repeat 'Being and Nothingness' in different words". It premiered in May of 1944. In 1945 Sartre with his intellectual friends co-founded "Les Tempes Modernes", a leftist journal named after Charles Chaplin's film Modern Times (1936). Sartre published Beauvoir's works first, giving her a steady platform and publicity. In 1945 he published "L'age de raison" (The Age of Reason), beginning the trilogy of "The Roads to Freedom".
His "Reflexions sur la question juive" (Reflections on the Jewish Question) was written after the liberation of Paris from the Nazi occupation in 1944. The first part (The Portrait of the Anti-Semite) was published in December of 1945 in Les Temps Modernes. Sartre deals with anti-Semitism and reaction to it on all levels. In 1962 Sartre adopted a Jewish musician, Arlette El Kaim, and later took his adopted daughter along on his visit to Israel, where he accepted an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University in 1976. Through his life Sartre expressed his interest in Messianic Judaism. A few months before his death he began a study of Jewish history. In his last interview with his friend and associate Benny Levy, Sartre said that "the messianic idea is the base of the revolutionary idea", but violent revolution is not the way.
In 1950 Sartre denounced Soviet labor camps, known as gulag prison camps. In 1955 he and Beauvoir went on official visits to the Soviet Union and to communist China. As left-leaning academics they accepted the official invitations from the communist governments. Sartre and Beauvoir met with Nikita Khrushchev. Beauvoir was commissioned by the Communist governments to write positively about communism and the 1917 revolution. Beauvoir took their money and published her shameful book, for which she and Sartre were ostracized in the West. In 1960 the two visited Cuba on the invitation of Fidel Castro. "Every man is a political animal," stated Sartre when he started as an editor of La Liberacion.
Sartre came to disaffection with the bourgeois lifestyle, as one of the perpetual ceremony that can strip people from their identity. For a similar reason he saw religion as a prison, although he was baptized Catholic. He lived a very modest life in a small apartment which he shared with Beauvoir on Rue Bonaparte in Montparnasse. There were attacks on his home in 1961, most likely by right-wing elements outraged by his position on Algerian independence (he was for it). Sartre spoke out on behalf of the Hungarians in 1956 and on behalf of the Czechs in 1968. He presided over the International War Crimes Tribunal set up by Bertrand Russell in 1967. He turned down prizes and took no money for any of his political positions; unlike his partner Beauvoir. Such independence made his voice more credible.
Jean-Paul Sartre quit writing literature after decades of success and misunderstanding. Ambiguity of his ideas and political evolution only reflected an effort to keep up with the rapidly changing times. His existentialism became a philosophy of the beatniks. His works were prohibited by the Catholic "index". "If God does not exist, everything is permitted", quoted Sartre from Fyodor Dostoevsky. He finally renounced literature as a "machine for producing words", and refused to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature, which he was awarded in 1964. He exhausted himself during the work on "Critique de la raison dialectique" (Critique of Dialectical Reason, 1960), the work he wanted to be remembered for. He left the unfinished massive biography of Gustave Flaubert, and over 300 personal letters to Beauvoir, who published them all after his death.
Sartre underwent his transformation from being a disciple of Andre Gide to a complete break-away. In his many incarnations--the philosopher, novelist, playwright, journalist, song lyricist, magazine editor, political activist--Sartre moved ahead by breaking old rules. He even used hard psychotropic drugs to "break the bones in his head" and think big. Sartre's opposition to the rigid social organization and self-destructive nature of class society and inevitable fatality of the modern world was paralleled by that of Aldous Huxley.
Jean-Paul Sartre exhausted himself with overwork, stress, drugs and alcohol. He died of edema of the lungs on April 15, 1980. His funeral was attended by 50,000 people, when he was laid to rest in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse in Paris, France. Six years later Beauvoir, who refused his marriage proposal in their youth, joined him in his grave forever.